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UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 8, 2017

Mike McGlinchey

South Bend, Indiana

Q. Talk a little bit about the growth of Brandon Wimbush through the years and including what you've seen him become this season?
MIKE MCGLINCHEY: I think he's done a great job of just getting better each and every day. Brandon, obviously, isn't a complete football player yet. None of us are. And we just have to keep -- that's part of the great thing about this game of football is that there's always something to work on. And he takes that with a lot of pride and a lot of intent.

And each and every day he's working to get better for our football team. And I think it showed on Saturday -- he's just gotten better each and every week and our team is certainly benefitting from it.

Q. The intangibles he brings, forget about the speed and the arm, how is he as a leader? How has he grown into that role?
MIKE MCGLINCHEY: I think he's done a great job. I think he knows that the quarterback is as important to a football team as any position in sports. And he's a mature guy. He knows the responsibilities that come with that.

He knows that our team looks to him for that stuff. And he's done a great job with it. He's a great leader. He's a great teammate. And you can't really say anything else other than that for Brandon and what he's doing now and what he's going to continue to become.

Q. Did you get a chance after the game last week to go home and watch a little bit of the Miami/Virginia Tech game?
MIKE MCGLINCHEY: Yeah, we watched, I think, it was pretty much the entire offensive line and couple other guys watched, we were hanging out watching the entire second half if not more than that.

Q. Your impressions?
MIKE MCGLINCHEY: They're a good football team. They're undefeated for a reason; they're top 10 in the country for a reason. So they get that kind of feel, and you can definitely see it when you watch them play football.

Q. What do you know of the rivalry? And have you had a chance to talk to anybody about it?
MIKE MCGLINCHEY: I know as much as everybody else does. Kind of started with the games in the '80s and continued on into the early '90s and then it got kind of shut down because of how wild it was getting.

So it's cool. It's really cool. This week is kind of like -- it's old-fashioned. It's both where these programs should be. It's what college football wants and in some ways it's what it needs.

Notre Dame and Miami are two tremendously historic programs. They've had an unbelievable amount of success and an unbelievable amount of great players have gone through each program. And the rivalry that we share with them is definitely one of a lot of intensity and a lot of fire. And I'm excited to finally be part of what looks to be a pretty classical Notre Dame football, Notre Dame/Miami football game.

Q. You've played these top matchups a few weeks now this season but now you're going on the road for a top 10 matchup. How do you guys prepare for this, welcoming that challenge into it as well?
MIKE MCGLINCHEY: I think it's the same way we prepare every other week except we're using a little bit more silent count. That's pretty much the only difference that's going to be part of our game plan is that. And it doesn't matter where or what or who you're playing, you've got to prepare the same exact way each and every time. And if you don't do that you're probably not going to have a lot of success on Saturday.

That's all we're really focusing on. We've obviously got to take the noise into a factor but the field, it's 100 yards long and 53 and a half yards feet wide. Other than that it's the same game.

Q. You've proven to the critics that you guys are able to play big football games and beat really good football teams. Going back to the road aspect, is there an added motivation to show that you can get it done on the road as well, because you guys have been at home previously in these big matchups?
MIKE MCGLINCHEY: Yeah, just to win the game would be awesome. They're a really good team no matter where the hell we're playing them.

I guess it's a little easier on them because they don't have to travel as far. But it's kind of nice for us, too. We're getting to go down to Miami in the middle of November in South Bend. That's kind of luxury for us as well. Like I said, we're not really worried about it being on the road. We just want to beat a good football team in Miami and that's all we're focused on.

Q. I'm guessing if you guys watched the majority of the game on Saturday with them, you've seen the turnover chain that they hand over on the sidelines at all?
MIKE MCGLINCHEY: Yeah, we were trying to figure out what that was about. Because we muted it, so we weren't listening to anything. But all of a sudden we saw one of those guys wearing that thing on the sideline.

It was pretty funny. It's something that they do. Every team kind of has their own thing to get guys hyped up. If that's theirs, that's what they do, then good for them.

We're not really worried about it. It's something that they do. It's something that's specific to them. And it's not really anything we need to focus on for the game.

Q. Obviously Josh has been a really solid player for you guys all year.
MIKE MCGLINCHEY: More than solid.

Q. I'll give you that one there. Even when he doesn't play for the majority of the game against Wake Forest, how confident are you as an offensive line unit just knowing that behind him you still have three very solid options?
MIKE MCGLINCHEY: It's awesome for us. No matter who is carrying the ball, our job is the same. That's the cool thing about what we do up front is that we've got so many playmakers all around us, whether it's Brandon, Josh, Tony, Dexter or Deon or the guys on the outside.

We've just had so many guys that have stepped up in such big ways this season that it's been awesome for us. And makes our job up front a lot of fun. And it's cool to see. It's the kind of thing we've preached on since I got here, the next man mentality. And it's something that the running back room has taken a lot of pride in. And they've done a great job. Obviously Josh is their leader and he's our guy.

But it just shows that we have a lot of talent on this football team ready to step up whenever their name is called.

Q. Obviously we've seen what Josh can do on the field. He's gotten the Heisman hype. Over the last few weeks we've learned more about him [inaudible]. What have you learned about him, I guess, from playing with him over the years? And what just can you tell us about him, just his personality what kind of guy he is?
MIKE MCGLINCHEY: He's one of the best guys on our team. He's just a good, good person. His mother raised him right. I know his mother pretty well. Josh and I both come from -- it's on the program that I'm from Philadelphia but I'm really from Warrington, Pennsylvania, where Josh is from. We live about a mile and a half away from each other, and we've driven back and forth to school a few times.

But Josh is a great kid and he deserves every ounce of attention that he's getting, even though he probably doesn't want it, which is probably another great aspect about Josh.

And he's just a guy that comes to work for our football team each and every day, does the work as hard as he can without saying a word about it to anybody. And he knows he's the best, and we think he's the best in the country. And that doesn't change his approach to the game, and I think that speaks a lot to his character.

And he's just a great leader. And you just can't really say enough good things about who Josh Adams, the person is, because he's just out of this world.

Q. When you've had those long drives anything you learned about --
MIKE MCGLINCHEY: He's a little different of a personality than I am. He doesn't have as many words that come out of his mouth. But you just learn certain things about his life through his family, just connecting on guys just the way you would with a normal friend. Like I said, you just can't say enough good things about him.

Q. How long were those drives?
MIKE MCGLINCHEY: About 11 hours from Philly to South Bend, nine and half if you can limit your bladder.

Q. Who normally drives?
MIKE MCGLINCHEY: I did the whole way that time.

Q. Do you do that a lot together?
MIKE MCGLINCHEY: No, just since I got a car out here. I didn't get a car until my senior year. If we ever had a quick break to shoot home, that would happen every now and again.

Q. Did you know each other when you first got to Notre Dame?
MIKE MCGLINCHEY: It was kind of a funny story. Coach Hiestand has our area to recruit on top of the offensive line because he's from our area. And I remember either my -- I think it was my sophomore year, because he's two years younger than me.

So my sophomore year, Coach Hiestand asked me do you know this kid named Josh Adams? He's from Central Bucks South High School. I said no, but I feel like I should because that's my local public high school, and if somebody out of the area is getting recruited, you normally hear about them. But Josh was such an under-the-radar kind of guy. He was hurt in high school. The more I dug about it, the more people I asked about him at home, the more they were, like, yeah, this kid is the real deal, he's an awesome guy. If you guys get him, you'd be lucky to have him. The proof is in the pudding with that one.

Q. Do you remember the first moment you realized he was going to be legit for you guys?
MIKE MCGLINCHEY: I think when he stepped up his true freshman year when, I think it was the Texas game, the first game of his career, I think he went -- I don't know, did he go for over 100 yards that day? He had two scores, I know that.

So he stepped up after Tarean Folston and C.J. Prosise had gotten a little nicked up in the game, and stepped in. And you're like, wow, this kid, 33, can really play. So that's kind of the moment that I realized that he was going to be good was his first game.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you.

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